The centerpiece of the city is Leonard Park and the Frank Buck Zoo. This community park consists of 30.05 acres and is located on Interstate 35 and California Street. The park, along with the zoo, is the most-used of all parks in the city. The zoo attracts throusands of visitors from throughout the region, while Leonard Park itself serves as a gathering place for thousands more. Leonard Park serves the entire population of Gainesville, as well as North Cenrtal Texas and Southern Oklahoma. Leonard parks serves most of Cooke County as the lack of quality recreation facilities within Cooke County force all communities in and outside of Cooke County to travel to Leonard Park for activities such as baseball, softball, swimming, picnics, school field trips, train rides, and visits to the zoo.

The park can be broken into four different areas: the common area of the park itself, the zoo, the ball fields, and the swimming pool.

• In the park there are 72 wooden picnic tables, 1 cement picnic table, 39 trash barrels, 6 grills, 3 smokers, 3 water fountains, 1 plastic tot playground and one large wooden playground structure of about 5,000 square feet which is handicapped-accessible. The park includes a large pavilion that is available to rent every weekend. The Parks & Recreation Department also provides to the public a 1/4 size replica of a steam engine train. The train route encompasses the entire park with track length being approixmately 1 mile. Along with the zoo, the train plays host to over 40,000 visitors per year.
  
  
• There are four lighted baseball and 4-lighted softball fields used primarily by Boys Baseball of Cooke County and the Boys and Girls Club of Cooke County for league play. Both leagues combined have a total of 850 participants.
  
  
• Leonard Park contains a 550,000 gallon outdoor swimming pool, wading pool, and large bathhouse. The swimming pool is one of the largest in North Texas. The WPA constructed Leonard Park's swimming pool after World War II. The pool has a unique history. The pool serves the Cooke County area and has an attendance of between 60-100 users per day during the swim season. The pool season consists of about seventy-three days starting the Saturday after Gainesville High School lets out for the summer. The pool serves a vital role for aquatics activities during the summer season.